Kiting In Brazil
Mega Downwinders & Kite Safaris
in CEARÁ, BRAZIL
Part 1
(July 08)
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Kiting in Brazil:
As many know by now, the Northeast coast of Brazil is blessed every year with reliable trade winds which turn the area into a giant playground for kitesurfers from all over the world, guaranteeing wind almost every day from July to January.
For these reasons, many long-distance record seekers have chosen this region of the planet and particularly the state of Ceará with its 600 km of beaches -from Canoa Quebrada to Camocim- to accomplish great adventures.
In November of 2006 Philip Knecht from Switzerland, chose the state of Ceará to break the previously held record of 213 km non-stop kiting held by Englishman Andreya Wharry. After dealing with local logisitcs issues (such as renting a motor-boat for assistance), on November 6th at 5:35 am, Philip took off from Cumbuco’s kite beach -30 minutes from Fortaleza’s international airport- and started to head downwind on his 10m North Rhino.
After 10 hours on the water kiting in Brazil and some difficulties due to light winds on the first part of the
downwinder, he reachs his original goal, the windsurfing town of Jericoacaora. Feeling good and with winds now in the 30 knots he decides to keep on going to see how far he can reach. He eventually makes it to Camocim and passes the 300 km mark on his GPS (exactly 300,57 km) after riding for 12 hours and 09 minutes. Congratulations Philip!!!
A couple of months later during Kiting in Brazil, in March of 2007, Dom Rivard from France will beat this record with a 324 km (175 N. miles) ride in the Caribbean (St Vincent).
The following season in Northeast Brazil again, two French -originially paragliders- decide to go on a slightly different but also extreme kitesurfing downwinder.
Eric Gramond and Olivier Laugero’s plan was to kite the coast from Natal (in the “Rio Grande do Norte” state), along the entire coast of “Ceará”, past the small portion of the “Piaui” state and finally end up in Sao Luis (“Maranhao” state), approximately 1,200 km downwind from the departing city!
“We wanted to transfer this spirit [of bivouac paragliding] in the Kiting in Brazil activities. So we did, with Eric Gramond, my friend, a wonderful down winder for 14 days without assistance, no car, no bus, just the wind.” says Olivier Laugero.
After spending 2 weeks training in Paracuru and doing two mini downwinders to Jericoacoara, they take a bus out to Natal on Nov. 8th, with each an 11m Ozone Instinct, a kite board and as Eric reports: “A bag with a hammock, few liters of water, few biscuit, a pump for the kite and a camera video…” Because of somewhat unconsistent winds during the first couple of days, it took them almost a week to make it to Fortaleza, the capital city of Ceará. The following day they were in Paracuru again, they took advantage of their base to change kites (9 m² now for the stronger winds) and traded their “mutant boards for more comfortable twin-tips”.
Two days later they get to Jericoacaora and keep on going Kiting in Brazil with offshore winds and having to go out as far as 5 km out in some areas before reaching the city of Parnaiba (which is also the largest delta in South America). It eventually took them another 3 days to get past unhabited areas such as the “Lencois Maranhense National Parc” (75 km of coastal desert with large sand dunes) and they only missed their planned goal by 80 km. Olivier and Eric stopped at the beginning of the Sao Luis bay because of lack of wind.
“we would have needed a 15m², not a 9m²” says Olivier.
Today, they still wonder if they were the first to complete a 1,120 km downwinder over 14 days!
Ten days after completing this mega-downwinder, with still plenty of energy, Eric decides to leave Paracuru for a solo downwinder on December 3rd around 5:30 am. Seven hours later he is already flying by the windsurfers in Jericoacoara, used to the conditions and the area he continues on and after 12 hours on the water he eventually makes it to “Luis Correia”, a small fishing village 325 km from Paracuru. He doesn’t know it yet, but he has just beat the previous world record long-distance kiting in Brazil within 24 hours, by 1 km. Unfortunately for him, lack of witnesses and GPS tracking of his accomplishment won’t enable Eric to have it accepted as an official record.
“That’s great news… now I have a reason to go back next year!!” says Eric Gramond.
Some history on the origin of the downwinders in Ceará, Brazil:........Click here to read more
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